“Dioramafest” with Zebraoutrider

So, construction was not as straightforward as I had first thought and I went wrong a couple of times! I think this was largely due to the way the instructions were provided. I’m very much used to numbered parts and a series of pictorial stages in the construction. In this case there was one main pictorial and this was only from one angle and a series of written instructions. Now I know a bad workman blames his tools, and I thought I followed the instructions word for word, but still I managed to break the propeller shaft and get struts the wrong way round despite offering them up pre-glued to make sure they fitted. The plastic was quite hard and not that flexible.

A gallery of the work in progress takes you through the construction phases…

By the end of the construction, which took about three hours, all parts had been used (none were missing!) although I did decide to discard the pilots as I have in mind a couple of pulp/Cthulhu investigators/adventurers to use instead.

I’ll also use some green stuff to ‘hide’ my construction mistakes before I paint it.

On the very positive side, the kit is really detailed and will custom paint up pretty well and the 1/48th scale will not look out of place with 28mm scale minis. Overall I’m really pleased with the kit and for £20 it’s probably as good as any modern day 3D printer version and possibly cheaper.

Now it’s constructed, it’s fuelled my creative juices for a water-themed, Cthulhu-inspired diorama around no more than 18-24” square… possibly smaller to make the plane the centrepiece?

Next up… measuring up a diorama base and getting the paints out…

My initial dioramas always revolved around a 1/35th scale Tamiya vehicle along with their crew in various poses either engaging in combat or at a period of rest. But as I got into fantasy role playing and painting of miniatures, I began turning these miniatures from simple representations of my adventuring role-play characters into scenes that actually depicted memorable episodes from those adventures.

When Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) came in 1986, the accompanying miniatures from GW just grabbed my imagination so much further because not only did you have the ‘regular’ fantasy adventuring genres, but you had added detailed background careers such as outlaw, pit fighter, sailor and troll slayer. This wealth of content led me to create ‘Kislevite Pit-fight”, “The Alchemist of Auerswald”and “The Angler’s Retreat” which all won me awards at the International Model and Engineering Exhibition. My last diorama “Über die Brücke” didn’t get entered because the categories were scrapped by the competition, but 30 years on it won the OTT Spring Challenge for 2022.

So, I’m going back to creating dioramas in this blog. This is my “Dioramafest” ?!

When I’m thinking about a diorama it has to convey views from multiple angles to tell that story I have in my mind and to provide the context that the audience sees. In effect, I’m trying to establish a common understanding of my vision without the use of any verbal or written language!

I usually take inspiration from the ‘main ingredient’ for my diorama and let my mind run its own journey of discovery and development.

For this first diorama I’ve chosen a Merit 1/48th  scale Fairey Swordfish boat plane plastic model kit from J & L Randall LTD. Potters Bar, UK. It was manufactured I believe in 1957 and all the parts look in pretty condition, but I’m not going to risk using the glue! The water slide transfers also look a bit old, but I’ll tackle them when I need to.

Next up… construction time…